


Lesson #1: Always Keep Your Focus

by ThreadOfFate



Series: Archery Lessons, Or: How To Woo A Hunter Without Really Dying [1]
Category: Octopath Traveler (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, and by god if nobody's gonna write it i guess i am, i fell in love with this ship from just the demo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 09:24:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15409854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThreadOfFate/pseuds/ThreadOfFate
Summary: In which Tressa is totally not distracted by H’aanit’s biceps during an archery lesson, no sirree she is not.





	Lesson #1: Always Keep Your Focus

_ Breathe in, out, in.  Hold. Aim. Release. _

The arrow flew from Tressa’s bow, whistling through the warm afternoon air and solidly embedding itself in the practice target between the second and third rings. Her look of focused determination quickly shifted into an unamused frown, and she nearly threw the bow to the ground in frustration.  “Rrrrrgh! Fly better, you stupid things!” 

She glared down at the bow in her hand, which refused to acknowledge her frustration.  The target had multiple arrows already sticking out of it, clustered around the center but none having thus yet entered it.  “What am I doing wrong!?” she asked nobody in particular, staring at the bow with no small amount of annoyance before pulling another arrow from her quiver and preparing to fail once again.

“Mayhaps I can lenden a hand?”

H’aanit’s beautiful voice coming from close behind Tressa made her yelp in surprise, and she whirling around to find the hunter standing there, shapely arms crossed over her chest.  She stepped up next to Tressa, who was busy trying to get her heartbeat back down to a normal pace, and regarded the practice target with keen gray eyes. Tressa didn’t dare look into those eyes.  She’d done it before, and every time she did, she found it suddenly difficult to look anywhere else.   
  
“Oh, hey there, H’aanit,” she said, a non-casual waver creeping into her voice.  “It’s okay, you don’t have to trouble yourself. I’m just...practicing, ya know? Gotta practice if I wanna be as good as you someday!”  She flashed the girl a quick smile, hoping that would cover up the nervousness. To her non-surprise, it didn’t. In fact, the fluttering in her stomach that was often present when H’aanit was got even worse, and it threatened to spill over.

Tressa fought back a nervous laugh and the urge to say something stupid.  Bring around H’aanit seemed to bring that urge up fairly often.   


Looking away from the target, H’aanit smiled down at Tressa, who felt the glory of a thousand suns shine upon her in that instant.  “A skilled hunter thou’rt already, Tressa, but you have yet much to learnen. If thou permitest me?” She indicated the bow in Tressa’s hand, holding out her own.

“Oh, uh, yeah, of course.”  Tressa handed it over, and H’aanit began to examine it, turning it over in her hands, passing over it with her gaze, pulling on the bowstring a few times.  She got into a firing stance and pulled the string back with ease, sighting with a nonexistent arrow, handling the weapon with practiced skill and familiarity.

Tressa wasn’t looking at the bow.  Tressa’s eyes were instead drawn to H’aanit’s arms, taking in every motion of her muscles underneath her gorgeous skin - muscles that were most certainly not for show, as Tressa had seen on multiple occasions.  She’d emerged from her tent one morning to see H’aanit chopping wood, axe splitting log after log. H’aanit had been drenched in sweat, the morning light gleaming off of her biceps, causing Tressa to duck back inside of her tent and do her best to stave off a heart attack.

Tressa wanted to run her hands along H’aanit’s arms so badly.  Also her face. And her waist. And her-   
  
“Tressa?”

“Mrr?” Tressa was brought from her daydream by H’aanit gently nudging her with the bow, grounding her in her body as the sensation anchored her.  She glanced up to see H’aanit studying her, frowning. “Ah! Sorry, I daydreamed a bit there. It happens from time to time! Nothing to worry about, no sirree!”

“As I spake, thy bow is well-crafted, so I believen the problem lieth with thy stance.”  She handed the bow back over. “Aime for me.”

With a small nod, Tressa took the bow and assumed her usual firing stance, standing with her legs apart and the bowstring held taut.  She kept the pose while H’aanit slowly walked around her, her godsdamned enchanting eyes studying Tressa from head to toe..

Tressa very determinedly kept staring straight ahead, chalking the quiver in her arms up to the exertion from holding the bowstring back.

H’aanit reached out and placed her hands on Tressa’s arms, adjusting the girl’s stance in some small ways.  Her hands were calloused, particularly the first two fingers of her right hand, which contrasted with how gentle her touch was.  There was a bit of firmness to make sure Tressa moved appropriately, but H’aanit seemed practiced at this - this wasn’t the first time she had taught someone how to better use a bow.

It really didn’t help that every new touch or motion of H’aanit’s fingers onto Tressa’s skin brought forth a wave of heat, adding to the already considerable fire in Tressa’s stomach.  Her heart was threatening to beat out of her chest.   
  
“Pullen with thy back, from here.”  H’aant tapped Tressa’s back, near her shoulder blades, then pressed up against her to better help Tressa assume the proper positioning, moving her hands along Tressa’s arms and hands to adjust them with precision.  Tressa, for her part, was worried she was going to spontaneously combust from the heat in her face.   
  
Speaking of chests, she could definitely feel H’aanit’s pressing into her, a nice physical sensation to add to everything else.  She had never been so close to H’aanit before, and now she could smell the hunter’s bouquet of scents - the rich earth of the forest floor, a tinge of sweat from today’s walking and fighting, and a sweet, flowery aroma that delighted Tressa in no small way.

H’aanit also had several inches of height over Tressa, and Tressa was now  _ extremely _ aware of that difference, of the sheer  _ power  _ that H’aanit held in her lithe figure.  When her arms were atop Tressa’s own, it was impossible to miss.

“Aimen with thy hands, but thy back shouldst be what pulls.”  H’aanit used two fingers to tap Tressa’s wrist, then slid up them up along Tressa’s arm to her back, tapping the shoulder blade of her right shoulder.  “Drawing fully with thy arm will wearen it out, and it leaden to fatigue. Thy power is in thy back, Tressa, not within thine arms.”   
  
Whatever H’aanit was saying, Tressa was letting pass in and out of her head, as she was completely lost in just being this close to H’aanit.  The hunter’s words faded into a background buzz as visions of getting closer and closer swam through Tressa’s mind, her thoughts turning from H’aanit teaching her archery to H’aanit teaching her a good many other thi-

“Tressa, thou’rt listening?”

H’aanit’s direct question and small nudge bring Tressa rudely back to reality, and she blinks a few times to try and clear her head of the rather intimate images that were crowding her mind.  H’aanit’s garb did not leave much to the imagination. “I, uh…” she sputtered, trying to find her words.

“Thou’rt well?  Thy seemest to be flushed, and thy form is quaking. Needen we summon Ophilia or Alfyn?”  H’aanit got even closer so she could get a better look at Tressa’s face, and she moved a hand from Tressa’s arm onto her forehead, feeling for a fever.  The contact brought forth a new wave of heat in Tressa, and she panicked as she tried to decide what to do.

“I’m fine!” Tressa squeaked, very clearly not fine as she finally stepped away from H’aanit, breaking the charged contact between them.  “Thanks for the lesson, I think I get it now. Um. I’m gonna take inventory. Bye!”

She scampered off to the group’s collected packs and supplies and nearly collided with Alfyn, who had to quickly jump out of her way.  He watched her go, curious, then turned back to H’aanit. “Did somebody say my name?”

“Aye,” H’aanit said with a nod.  “But ‘tis no matter of concern. Tressa seemeth to be afflicted by maiden’s fever.”

“Maiden’s fever?”  Alfyn cocked his head to the side.  “Haven’t heard of that before. What is it?”

A trace of a smile graced H’aanit’s lips, the mischievous kind that Alfyn saw her wearing when Linde was preparing to playfully jump on someone.  “‘Tis when thou feelen a desire for another, someone to cleave to and be joined with.”

Alfyn blinked a few times, having to work out just what she was saying  Fortunately, he was well aware of the symptoms of this particular malady.  “...she’s in love.”

“Indeed.  In S’warkii, ‘twas a common affliction among those recently of age.  I myself have suffered under the fever, enough to recognizen the signs of it.”

Alfyn chuckled, folding his arms as he watched Tressa sort through their gear with purpose.  “It seems kinda mean to be so teasing about it to her. She’s young, you know. This is probably her first time.”

“Aye.  And I am patient.”  She glanced down to Alfyn.  “If she doth haven feelings for me, she willen act on them in time.  Weren I to rush her, it woulden only leadeth us down a doomed path.”

He fixed her with a curious look as he pondered her words, realization dawning soon after.  “You speak from experience?” H’aanit said nothing, instead looking back at Tressa, choosing to let the silence fall between them.  Alfyn looked over as well, but his curiosity got the better of him, and he broke the stillness. “I...wish I had told him, before I left, but I couldn’t.  I think...I think I didn’t, so I would be sure to come back. A promise, I guess.”

H’aanit hummed in understanding, affectionately clapping a hand onto Alfyn’s shoulder.  “Thou hast a noble goal, Alfyn, and a nobler heart. As longen as thy heart is pure and thy actions just, thy chance to return to him will come.”

“Yeah, it will,” Alfyn said, hoping the agreement would make him feel better.  It didn’t really, but her confidence in it did. “And here’s hoping your own chance comes soon,” he said quietly with a nod towards Tressa.

“Ah, weren it up to only me, we woulden be united,” H’aanit replied with a gentle shake of her head.  “I learned with mine own heart what such heated feelings can bringen. She and I...we weren young. Foolish.  Besotten with one another. Verily, it...ended as it began, in a fit of passion.”   
  
She sighed, then looked back to Tressa, smiling at the younger girl as she got their gear in order.  “I learned a lesson most valuable, Alfyn. All things happen in their own time, and so I sayeth again...I am patient.”

“Yeah,” agreed Alfyn as his thoughts drifted back to his hometown, and to the one waiting for his return.  “All things in their own time.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry for butchering H'aanit's speech but let's be real what the fuck is she even saying


End file.
